Encouraging Comments

To me, having regular comments on my blog is the surest sign that I am doing well. It means that what I write is important enough that it warrants a response, and that people are sticking around the site long enough to to type something up.

So, in order to get more comments and, as a result, feel more successful, I'm doing a weekly post every friday where I feature one comment from the previous week. My first featured post can be seen here.

Do you think this is a good idea? How do you encourage comments? And how do you tell if you blog is a success? Is it solely personal?

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Personal Blogs

It seems that, despite criticism, personal blogs are the ones that do the best. They have the most subscribers, they are most likely to be on the Blogs of Note if they are a Blogger blog, and they get the most coverage. Why is that? Afterall, we're constantly told that no one wants to know what our day is like, we're not important enough. But I'm thinking, yes, we are important enough. And that's not being arrogant.

Look at it this way: as bloggers we are often told that the key to getting more readers and comments is to be personal. We should write our posts in first person and include an about me page saying who we  are, not just what the blog is about. I think this has to do with how blogs are seen. They have become a way for the average person to share his or her opinions. Readers also expect to be able to ask questions and have discussions with the author and get their questions answered. They have an easier time doing this if they can relate to the author and the author is seen as an actual person, not just a screenname.

So the moral of this story is, even if your blog is not a personal blog, find a way to connect with the readers. Offer assistance, come through with your promises, and share information about yourself while still keeping safety in mind.

Blogs of Note

Is it bad that I don't like to follow most of the Blogger's Blogs of Note? Here's my logic: as soon as those bloggers become a blogger of note, their views and followers increase exponentially. While I am sure they are excellent blogs, I would rather focus my attention on blogs that have not broken out yet; hidden gems if you will.

I'm this way about a lot of things. Their was another blogging site that I used to write on that would have featured blogs. I usually ignored those because I thought it wasn't fair that these blogs got so many views when others did not get as many. I also prefer to shop in local shops because I like how unique they are, and I think its better for there to be a wide range of stores for a healthy economy.

What This Blog Is

A few months ago, I decided to begin blogging. My blog is a guide for current and future college students. In writing this blog, I've learned that there is a lot I don't know and a lot of problems that I've ran into. I started complaining about these things on a second blog I have, but I don't advertise it because it is mostly for random rants. I wanted to actually getting answers, so now, a third blog is born. Anyways, I'll be using this blog to ask questions and share tidbits about blogging that I've learned. I hope to grow this into a community.